Report: Jay Z Signs X Factor 2011 Contestant

Party responsible for the careers of Rihanna, Willow Smith and Kanye West, Rap Svengali Jay Z has proven that he most certainly knows what he is doing when it comes to recruiting new performers.

Now, in what will be sure to excite fans of the X Factor franchise, he has reportedly signed one of the show’s contestants in a bid to expand his already successful label- Roc Nation.

Find out who below…

According to TheBlackMedia.Net, the Rapper has signed with the label just days after being voted off the X Factor USA this past weekend.

If this report turns out to be true, it will mark the second time the ‘99 Problems‘ mogul has taken on a former talent show competitor, signing America’s Got Talent hopeful Alexis Jordan back in 2008.

Most likely orchestrated by mutual friend LA Reid, who of course served as Astro’s mentor during his time on the show, we can’t think of any other label with the means and know how to turn him into the cash cow Reid clearly believes he can be.

Keep it locked on That Grape Juice for any updates on this yet to be confirmed story.

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  1. skintightjeans December 5, 2011

    I knew it! Go Astro!!

  2. Craig December 5, 2011

    That was quick… Simon Cowell just lost millions haha

  3. Aaron December 5, 2011

    I doubt it, because Simon reserves the right to sign anyone from X Factor. Don’t forget, Matt Cardle won X Factor last year, but Simon also signed Cher Lloyd, One Direction AND Rebecca Ferguson.

  4. YOOSONDALOOSE December 5, 2011

    That is good for Astro, but TBH Jay-Z hasn’t handled Willow well atm the moment, but her handles Rihanna so well so let’s see.

  5. Spunkypoop December 5, 2011

    It was a bidding war between Jermaine Dupri and Jay-Z. I see Jay-Z WON!! I would prefer him to go with Jay-Z anyway they both from Brooklyn and Jay will take good care of him. Things is popping off over there at Roc Nation. Holla!

  6. Nickiferagamo December 5, 2011

    He signed cher lloyd from x factor uk last year too

  7. Jay December 5, 2011

    Things arent going too well considering Alexis Jordan isnt doing well at all and JCole’s album was a big flop. And Rihanna is just lackluster now.

  8. mobwife December 5, 2011

    So Mr. “SMACK MY B**** UP” just ask Foxy Brown , Mr “I AM A DRUG DEALER” just ask the children in Brooklyn, has now signed this obnoxious little boy…LOL? This should be fun to watch him promote yet another God awful talentless act! *Hi Rihanna* 🙂

    **I HATE Beyonce’s pet camel!

  9. sabrina December 5, 2011

    Jay signs a s*** load of people with little results. J Cole is a great talent tho. Bridget Kelly has a nice voice but I think it will be hard to market her. Willow is struggling and Alexis Jordan makes 90s pop music that only does well in Europe.

  10. Who Run This Mofo (Bey) December 5, 2011

    best rapper out now! at least he aint talking about s** or alcohol!

  11. RDK December 5, 2011

    gratz to him.

  12. Geronimo Deuces-Champion December 5, 2011

    he has a very bad attitude…… i hope he gets himself together

  13. mike December 5, 2011

    Someone needs to grab Misha!

    She can be soo many things….she can be the next lauryn hill

  14. Geronimo Deuces-Champion December 5, 2011

    go dani j

    very good

  15. TruthTeller December 5, 2011

    Astro was the s***.
    AMAZING TALENT

  16. flawda December 5, 2011

    lol at Alexis Jordan not doing too well, what world have you been living in the last 2 years. Her single Happiness went double platinum and her album did really well world wide. She is also on a successful single with Sean Paul right now too.

  17. RHI RHI IS QUEEN December 5, 2011

    UMMM THIS NEWS IS LIKE A WEEK OLD.. #FAIL

  18. sonam December 5, 2011

    How far do you agree with the view that in the hello the Ku Klux Klan posses neither sizeable support nor significant influence?

    During the 1920’s, racial tensions in American society reached boiling point. New non-protestant immigrants like Jews and Catholics had been arrived in their masses from south-east Europe since early on in the century. Together with Orientals, Mexicans and the Black population these minorities suffered the most at the hands of those concerned with preserving the long established White Anglo-Saxon Protestant values that were an integral part of American life. Prejudice and racism reared in many areas of society, with people showing a tolerance for racist views in the media, literature and towards organisations like the Ku Klux Klan.
    America is one nation but it is also one originally made up of immigrants who arrived not only from Europe and Asia, but forcibly as slaves from Africa and of Native Americans. It’s population is the most racially and culturally diverse in the world and this is in theory the reason for racial tension in America during the 1920’s. The Ku Klux Klan emerged after the civil war with a group of white Southerners who were not content when the war ended. They felt this way because the Black minority had won their freedom from slavery and they had lost their slaves. No more slavery meant their lives had changed and they felt threatened by this change. This predicament lead to the creation of the Ku Klux Klan which was against other races, mainly the black community, the Klan had gained over 4 million members by 1923 which suggests it had sizeable support and there support continued to grow as the years rolled on.

    During the 1920’s the Federal Government did little to alleviate poverty and socio-economic disadvantage amongst its ethnic minorities. However at this time few Americans would have expected it to intervene in the way it does nowadays. There were rare instances where President Warren Harding spoke out against racial segregation, for example in Birmingham, Alabama, heartland of the racist South. However some cynics have argued that he did so primarily to win the electoral support of northern blacks. One historian even claimed that Harding had been inducted into the Ku Klux Klan in the White House during his presidency. Moreover the various administrations throughout the twenties seemed to condone racial discrimination. A half-hearted attempt to introduce an anti-lynching law in 1921 was defeated, with Southern Senators using filibustering tactics to prevent the legislation from being passed. Despite acknowledging the issue of lynching in his first address to 2Congress in 1923, Coolidge subsequently did not act on the problem. Moreover, on the 18th August 1925 the Ku Klux Klan was able to stage a 40,000 man parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C with no intervention from state officials. Furthermore the segregated facilities in government buildings introduced in the first decade of the century remained unchanged. The fact that the American government during the twenties was seen to be continually ignoring and avoiding issues related to ethnic minorities did not help to improve the hostile attitudes of its people.

    The growing spirit of intolerance erupting throughout America can be witnessed none clearer than in the wartime revival of the secret society, the Ku Klux Klan. The newly re-modelled organisation of the Civil War days claimed to be fighting to protect native white Protestants.. They argued that the American way of life was under threat not only from the Negroes but also from Catholics, Jews and all immigrants. It emphasised the notion of 100% Americanism. Its appeal was mainly sited in the Southern states, where the majority of black people lived, where the powerful idea of ‘white supremacy’ went unquestioned. The Klan’s appeal also spread to the western and northern states, where Catholics and Jews became the targets. Throughout the 1920’s the Klan’s membership saw an increase, estimates at the time ranged from 3-5 million and profits rolled in from the sale these memberships, regalia, costumes and rituals. The burning cross became their symbol. The Ku Klux Klan used intimidation, threats, beating and even murder in their quest for a “purified America”. Klan members, between 1920-27 it has been estimated, carried out the lynching of 416 Blacks in the Southern States. Research by writers at the time indicated that most of the victims were innocent or were only accused of minor offences. The Klan’s influence reached it’s peak in the state of Indian where the ‘Grand Wizard’, David Stephenson was politically powerful. It was also alleged that in 1924 the Klan helped elect governor in Maine, Colorado and Louisiana.
    There is little doubt that while not all would go to the extremes of the Klan in terms of violence, many in rural America supported it’s ideology. However the Klan did not receive as strong a following in the larger cities of the north. Despite this, the support and more importantly the tolerance that many American people showed for the Ku Klux Klan during the twenties serves as evidence to show that attitudes towards ethnic minorities had been very much altered.

    The racial discrimination towards ethnic minorities during the twenties can also be seen in the job opportunities available to them. Blacks, Mexicans, and the recent immigrants clustered as the bottom of the wage scale. All were usually the last hired and the first fired and performed menially jobs. Mexicans were employed as cheap labour on Californian farms. Wherever the minorities worked the ‘native’ Americans saw them as a threat to their livelihood, as they normally accepted jobs that the whites did not want. Despite emancipation from slavery after the Civil War, the former slaves remained at the bottom of the social scale in the southern states, where most blacks lived. They lacked economic independence, since they largely worked in white-owned land. Many poverty stricken Blacks migrated from the south to the north during the twenties, to fill the demand for unskilled labour in the North. This however led to resentment from the white workers who saw them as competitors. To add to their problem, Blacks were subject to discrimination at work too. Memberships to unions remained low throughout the twenties. Although the American Federation of Labour officially prohibited racial discrimination, the independent unions within the AFL did discriminate against Black. Some had constitutional clauses limiting membership to whites only; others followed a de facto exclusion policy. The historian Hugh Brogan refers to black peoples problem’s: “Trapped on a treadmill of poverty, poor education and discrimination, blacks faced formidable obstacles.”

    During the 1920’s various groups of ethnic minorities were discriminated against through the act of segregation. Most commonly associated with Blacks, who were separated from whites in most public areas including trains, parks and even cemeteries, also extended to other minority groups. Orientals living in America were compelled to attend segregated schools. Catholics, shunned by the Protestant majority in organised sport, formed a separate high-school athletic conference early in the 1920’s but was not allowed to merge with the public system until forced legislation to do so in 1966. Jews continued to be discriminated against in the twenties. They were casually excluded from large parts of American society. Attempts to restrict Jewish admission to law school began in the twenties, arising from resentment of their success in various careers. It was at this time that the expression “Five o’clock anti-Semitism” entered the language. It meant that people would work with Jew during the day, but wouldn’t dream of socialising with them in the evenings.

    In can been said that the 1920’s were marked considerably by racial tensions between the ethnic minorities and those who upheld white Anglo-Saxon values. Grievances regarding ethnic minorities, that had been simmering throughout the ‘native’ American population decades before, got stronger and came to be recognised. Tolerance for racist views in the media, literature and in organisations made the Ku Klux Klan popular and have the effect it did. Similarly the hostile attitude of the Federal Government during the twenties did not set a good example for its people regarding ethnic groups. The racial prejudices that had been ingrained throughout American society were evident and this shows the KKK did have sizeable support with over 4million supporters. Although all members of the KKK were not extreme enough to lynch, they supported the KKK because it became a way of life to be casually racist, racisim was growing and this made the KKK’s actions seem acceptable. The mere fact that the Klan was able to function so comfortably with its clothing and publication companies, it was able to fund its itself which made the government irrelevant, this also became a reason for the government to not interfere as the Klan was boosting American economy. The corrupt attitude of the government and the ignorance of the public also played a card in the situation evolving into which it did.

  19. flawda December 5, 2011

    Jay-z has said numerous times, he is going back to a 90s model of developing artist. It’s gonna take a couple of years for artist to come out until they find their voice. That’s the problem with you music fans, ya’ll have the worst attention span and want everything now. Whatever happen to ARTIST DEVELOPMENT, and not every artist will have commercial success instantly, it’s about building a fanbase.

    Why do ya’ll think J Cole is seeing success now, it took him 2 years to build his fanbase up. The same thing will happen to those other Roc Nation artist.

  20. OMG!! December 5, 2011

    @ SONAM-ho you need a job…wtiing a F****** novel…GET OFF THIS SITE AND STAY OFF HO!!!

  21. ARYO December 5, 2011

    WOW, good for him
    i hope he signs drew too

  22. ARYO December 5, 2011

    RHI RHI IS QUEEN
    December 5, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    UMMM THIS NEWS IS LIKE A WEEK OLD.. #FAIL

    ______________________________________________

    its not even a week since astro got eliminated, #FAIL lol

  23. Roman December 5, 2011

    Well he certainly has a thing for signing kids with no authenticity, for example Willow, probably 1 of the most annoying artists out today, I’ll rather listen to Justin Beiber than Willow :/ …

  24. MISHKA December 5, 2011

    Confidence is everything. Congrats Brian!

    At 3.43 Is he cooking??? LOL nice!

  25. Rellz December 5, 2011

    simon can sign them. but he doesnt get first pick once theyre eliminated those acts just decided to go with him

  26. Maura Duval December 6, 2011

    Jay Z always brings great new music out! Something new and amazing to check out is Mobb Deep’s latest single, “Dead Man Shoes”. Listen to it here, http://bit.ly/vFSYn8 . Enjoy!

  27. YOOSONDALOOSE December 6, 2011

    Its not Astro confirmed.

  28. Sherry December 6, 2011

    Well, if Astro had to sign with anyone Roc Nation is the way to go. Of course, not every artist can be a Rihanna or J. Cole. See Teirra Mari for example. It’s the nature of the business. Willow just had a poor second song choice after the novelty of Whip My Hair fell off. But, she has time to develop. Astro considering his talent and ambition may do well and easy for Jay Z to market.

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